Vietnam aims to receive about 18 million foreign visitors and 85 million domestic ones in 2019, and earn more than VND700 trillion ($30.2 billion) from tourism, the Vietnam News Agency quoted the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as announcing.

To attract more foreign holiday-makers, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has enhanced tourism promotion activities and information provision.

Vietnam joined the 39th International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid, Spain from January 23-27, aiming to introduce Vietnam’s potential for tourism development.

The administration plans to attend a series of other promotion programmes in Germany, Russia, Venezuela, China, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Japan and ASEAN countries in 2019.

Vietnam served some 15.5 million-15.6 million foreign tourists and 80 million domestic travelers in 2018, earning VND620 trillion ($26.66 billion) for tourism revenue.

The success has been attributed by some to the efforts of tourism authorities to promote the country overseas.

The tourism sector focused on promoting tourism in traditional markets and those with high growth potential. It worked with the tourism advisory council to foster e-marketing in tourism promotion activities, and build tourism apps for mobile devices.

Localities also made videos to promote tourism and received international delegations to explore tourism development potential in Vietnam.

To aid such efforts, VNAT has adopted a system of indicators to evaluate a destination and a tourism code of conduct; designed various plans to strengthen the management of travel agencies and tour guides; and raised awareness of the importance of quality among tourism service providers, local administrations and tourism authorities.

According to the VNAT, to meet the demands of visitors from different markets, Vietnam has developed a range of tourism products that make use of the country’s advantages, including cultural tours, sea-based tours, eco-tours, adventure tours, luxurious resort vacations and more.

In recent years, a range of popular holiday destinations like Ha Long, Phu Quoc and Da Nang have helped develop the image of Vietnam, promoting national tourism among international visitors and becoming the main drivers of the industry’s growth.

Also in 2018, the country won a series of international awards, recognising it as a safe and friendly destination. Vietnam was named “Asia’s Leading Destination” for the first time at the 2018 World Travel Awards in Hong Kong in September. Two months later, it was honoured with as “Asia’s best golf destination in 2018” at the Golf World Travel Awards.

In December last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the establishment of a State-run tourism development fund, worth about VND300 billion ($12.9 million), which will be used for financing tourism promotion activities.

The PM also approved a project which hopes to restructure the industry to turn it into a spearhead economic sector and make Vietnam one of the most developed tourism nations in Southeast Asia.

The project aims for $45 billion in tourism revenue by 2025, with exports through tourism reaching $27 billion.

The sector is hoped to contribute more than 10 per cent to GDP and create 6 million jobs, including 2 million direct jobs. At the same time, it expects to serve 32 million foreign tourists and more than 130 million domestic visitors in 2025.